City of Chico denies allegations in Desmond Phillips lawsuit

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey uses a digital model of Desmond Phillips’ family’s apartment as he talks to media about the Phillips case during a press conference April 13, 2017, in Chico.
Bill Husa — Enterprise-Record file

Sacramento >> The city of Chico has denied allegations in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Desmond Phillips, the 25-year-old mentally ill man who was shot and killed by police last March.

In a Thursday court filing in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, attorneys for the city and officers Jeremy Gagnebin, Alex Fliehr and Jared Cumber denied allegations of negligence and excessive force in Phillips’ shooting death.

The city and the Phillips family have both asked for a jury trial.

The Phillips family — represented by Oakland-based civil rights attorney John Burris — filed a lawsuit Jan. 23 over Phillips’ death, alleging officers used “negligent police tactics” and didn’t properly plan for their encounter with the 25-year-old.

Phillips was suffering from a mental health episode the night of March 17 at his family’s apartment in the 700 block of West Fourth Avenue in Chico. Officers entered the home and fired 16 rounds at Phillips, striking him at least 10 times.

Police have said officers broke into the home on information Phillips was threatening his family. Police also have said Phillips wielded a knife and/or a broken piece of wood and threatened officers before he was shot inside the home.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey previously cleared the shooting officers — Gagnebin and Fliehr — of any criminal wrongdoing in the matter, finding they acted in self-defense.

The Phillips family’s lawsuit claims Phillips “never posed a threat of harm to anyone throughout the subject incident and the use of deadly force by the defendant officers was unjustified.”

The lawsuit also alleges officers “failed to use de-escalation tactics to calm the situation and/or summon crisis intervention personnel to the scene.”